Six Ultra Lights Will Contest the Cal Cup Race This Weekend

Six big ultra-light displacement yachts--66 to 70 feet--will be going head-to-head in around-the-buoys racing this Friday through Sunday in a bid for the California Yacht Club’s Cal Cup.

It will be the second straight year that the big ULDBs have competed for the cup on a fleet basis. Before 1985, CYC used a match-racing format in the Cal Cup, but the speed and maneuverability of the big ULDBs makes for more exciting races over a triangular course around the buoys on Santa Monica Bay.

Last year 10 of the big “sleds” turned out for the Cal Cup, but only six will be on the line this year.

One of them will be John Landon’s Santa Cruz-70 Kathmandu, last year’s winner from the San Diego Yacht Club.

Also back for a second try will be the Nelson-Marek 66 Pandemonium with a new skipper, Robert Moore of Balboa Yacht Club. Last year Pandemonium finished second with Peter Wilson at the helm.

Others in this year’s lineup are Blondie, an SC-70 under charter to Pat Farrah, Long Beach Yacht Club; Cheetah, a Peterson-66 being sailed by Dick Pennington, LBYC; Drumbeat, an NM-68, Don Ayres, Newport Harbor YC, and Saga, an NM-68, Doug Baker and George Writer, LBYC.

In fleet racing, all boats start at once and race, boat for boat, with no handicap. This makes for some close-quarters racing, especially at the marks. In one race last year there were three collisions.